Page 30 of Racer

Emily’s eyes found mine, and her smile faltered as if she could feel the storm rolling off me and knew I needed her. She stood, handed Edge the popcorn, and crossed to me without hesitation. No questions. Just trust.Damn, I fucking loved her.

I took her hand and led her down the hall, straight to our room. Once inside, I kicked the door shut behind us and sat on the edge of the bed before tugging her onto my lap.

She came easily, her legs straddling mine, and her hands resting lightly on my chest.

“What happened?” she asked softly.

Just the sound of her voice calmed the turmoil inside me. I wrapped my arms around her waist and rested my chin on her shoulder, taking a breath before I told her about the two assholes in the parking lot.

Then I paused, dreading what I had to say next.

“Jude?”

“They admitted to putting Axle in the hospital.”

Emily’s body stiffened in my arms, and her fingers clenched in the fabric of my shirt.

“They did that to him?” Her voice cracked.

“Yeah,” I said gently, brushing loose strands of hair away from her face. “Your brother stood up to them. Told ’em to fuck off. So they made an example out of him.”

“I knew it,” she murmured. “I knew he didn’t make a mistake on the track.”

“Never doubted it. But now you know for sure.”

She sucked in a shaky breath, closing her eyes as she tried to process it. “Why didn’t he tell me?”

I rubbed slow circles along her back, grounding her like she did for me. “Because he’s your big brother, angel. And no matter how badass he knows you are, he’s still gonna want to protect you.”

Her shoulders dropped slightly, and when I kissed her forehead, she let out a sigh that sounded like she’d been holding her breath for days.

“I should’ve checked the car more thoroughly,” she whispered, finally opening her eyes and looking into mine. The sadness and guilt filling them sent something sharp through my chest.

“No,” I said firmly. “Don’t take the blame for that shit. Those bastards got someone good to do their dirty work. Professional. No way did those jackasses do this on their own. And you were working off no fucking intel. You didn’t miss something, angel.They buried it deep. We still don’t even know exactly what they did. Or even when.”

Without the telemetry data and footage, I wasn’t sure we ever would.

Emily nodded slowly, but I could still see the guilt lingering in her eyes before she laid her head on my shoulder. I didn’t push. I’d help her get there eventually. And when she did, I’d still be right beside her.

The next night,the air was thick and electric as I lined up for another qualifier. The crowd was rowdy, adrenaline pumping in my veins, and knowing the bets were heavy on one of Dez Franklin’s star drivers, I made a fucking show of it.

Burnout at the start, extra wide turns, and tail-whipping my rival so hard his spoiler clipped the fence. I crossed the finish line three car lengths ahead of the pack, then spun the car in a perfect victory donut before sliding it to a stop with the nose pointed directly at his team box.

Yeah, I was asking for it, and I wanted them to fuckingknowit.

Afterward, Emily went back to the garage with the rest of the pit crew. Kane, Edge, and Nitro—the Redline Kings’ sergeant at arms—stayed back to help clear out the stragglers before closing up the gates around another of Kane’s makeshift tracks.

I was anxious to get back to my girl, so I left them talking by the betting stands and headed out. Just as I was crossing the parking lot to my bike, I saw the same two dumbass thugs and sighed. I was getting real sick of their ugly faces.

But this time, they brought three more guys as backup.

I smiled as they surrounded me, but with a sinister edge. “Real flattered you felt you needed to bring extra playmates to the sandbox.”

“We warned you,” the tall one said. “You need to fucking back off.”

“Or what?” I asked, tilting my head. “You planning to do more than run your mouth this time? ’Cause I don’t bruise easy, but I’m real fuckin’ good at breaking things.”

That seemed to piss them off, which made me smile.

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